Scottish woman tells of abuse at Perth orphanage after ‘massive lie’ gave her hope of a better life here

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A Scottish woman has told a child abuse inquiry in the UK that she was abused at an orphanage in Western Australia after she agreed to move to the other side of the world as a child.

She told the Scottish Child Abuse Inquiry (SCAI) that she was upset when she arrived in Australia at the age of 14 to find she was being placed in an orphanage run by nuns, contrary to her expectation that she might be adopted by a family.

In the institution, she was not allowed to continue her schooling, was made to carry out heavy work in the kitchen and was "knocked around" by a nun.

The woman, now aged 85, gave evidence to the hearing in Edinburgh via video link from Western Australia on Monday.

The witness, who was in care in Scotland before leaving on a ship for Australia in the 1940s, told how the issue of moving countries was raised at her school in Edinburgh.

"A gentleman and a lady said, 'who would like to go to Australia?' I didn't know where Australia was, but I thought it must be better than what I had so far, so I put my hand up," said the woman, who cannot be named.

"We were told it was going to be a much better life. We were very disappointed to know we were going into an orphanage. That really upset me, I didn't think it was going to be like that."

The woman told how she arrived at St Joseph's orphanage in Perth, run by the Sisters of Mercy, with a suitcase of clothes, jewellery and presents, but they were taken from her and she was only allowed to wear shoes and socks when visitors came round.

"I was hoping to go back to school but they put me into the kitchen. There were other girls who were 14 who were allowed to go to school, which upset me a bit ... It was very hard (work)."

She described an occasion in which she got into trouble with a nun after someone locked the witness in a workshop and she could not be found.

"I got knocked around," she said.

"She slapped me across the face, back and forth, which was pretty horrible.

"We had another nun, you'd have to line up for meals and she had a stick and if you got out of line or talked, she'd poke you in the arm with this. They were quite cruel."